Answers to FREQUENTLY-ASKED Questions
with regard to the differences between the ARM (Australian Republic Movement)
and The RPA (Republican Party of Australia)
1. The RPA was founded in January, 1982 whereas, the ARM was founded in July, 1991. Thus a 9½ year lead time.
2. The ARM is a single-issue Lobby Group with an expressed ‘use-by’ date whereas The RPA is an alternative, minority political party which enunciates clearly alternative, inter-related policies which it deems conducive to a supremely democratic and harmonious, inclusivist, secular, NON-colonial polity.
3. The RPA champions the Peoples’ Sovereignty [Direct Election of the Oz Presidency] when the incumbent monarch either dies or abdicates, meaning that BEFORE either option comes into play, The Party is and shall remain a dedicated, democratic co-operative advocating the nation’s becoming a republic sooner rather than later so that the place rules off at a total of ten (10) monarchs since European (well, British) settlement in 1788. And never gets a King William IV. *Insofar, as has happened on a couple of occasions to date, The RPA Shall courteously petition the new monarch, King Charles III, to consider abdication; to seriously consider taking ‘early retirement’.
4. The RPA and the ARM organisations, in February 2006, agreed, in writing, on a three-phase process with the Leader of the ARM at the time,
Ted O’Brien, for the ensurance of a successful, eventual, second republican referendum – whenever it is that the Government-of-the-Day instigates one. To this point in time, The RPA has been and remains a stickler for the maintenance of the written agreement whereas, it would
verily seem as though – certainly under the influence of the former Chairman [2015 – 2022] mini-minimalist republican, Peter FitzSimons (aka ‘Fitzy’), who continually advanced during the time of his Stewardship, advanced a ludicrous, NON-inclusive, Plutocracy-orientated proposal which attempted to by-pass Section #128 of the Australian Constitution whilst persuading OR attempting to persuade the Prime Minister-of-the-Day to carry a vote of the two (2) Houses of Federal Parliament to enact legislation which, indubitably, would have been UNconstitutional. Not to mention ANTIdemocratic.
5. The RPA is ‘nationally-structured’ whereas the ARM is federally-structured (NO coincidence, because so is the Labor Party).
6. The RPA has not-for-profit accreditation whereas the ARM does not.
7. Joiners of the ARM do NOT get a Certificate verifying their Membership whereas, The RPA issues to ALL Joiners [whatever category] Foundation Membership Certificates – with attendant joining date of The Party thereon.
8. The ARM is, primarily, a Labor Party front – one of two (2) Labor Party fronts, actually (*the other being Labor for an Australian Republic – formed in mid-2015) – on the republican issue, whereas The RPA has NO outside links on the republican issue save for its continuing, strong links with the Brisbane-based Real Republic Australia Limited organization [RRA] led by David Muir. The RPA, though, is the party political/electoral wing of an ALL-encompassing republican umbrella group which since 1993 has been marketing ‘Republican-branded’ ALL-Australian products e.g. wine, coffee, olive oil, Wattle Day flags, bunting & badges, Republican t-shirts and water diverters etc. for both fund-raising and national identity/national awareness-raising purposes. The RPA, though, actively involves ARM Members who are Direct-Electionists in its exclusive and ongoing ‘Oz Republic-by-Default’ [for State Republics] Campaign.
9. The RPA sponsors and hosts three (3) major Australian Republican events per annum viz: the Annual National Republican Convention in a different regional Australian city/town (since 1987) with multi-faceted, topical themes the mainstay + the Annual National Republican-of-the-Year Dinner (since 1991) + the Annual Wattle Day Luncheon (since 2006). The ARM sponsors and hosts a different set of national functions including the annual Republican Lecture, each year, mostly premised on the theme of: ‘One of Us for President’.
10. The ARM can fairly be described as ‘Elitist’ – meaning that the organisation is ALL of the following: (a) appealing to the so-called ‘Big End of Town’, (b) supported, however, not exclusively by Big unions + Big business + (other) Big lobby groups but the ‘monied class’ anyway. Whereas, The RPA can most accurately be described as ‘grass roots’ with attestation to that claim emanating from the track record of conducting something close to 800 community-republican street meetings, Australia-wide (from October, 1991) and 1450+ one-to-one positive, pastoral/housecall visitations (since September, 2015). The RPA has absolutely no doubt that, when the proverbial ‘push comes to shove’, the model for the Oz Republic the ARM plumps for will be a Parliamentary-Appointment model similar to the model that the organisation on (then) Chairman’s watch (Malcolm Turnbull aka ‘The Turnbully’) advocated in the first Republican referendum held on 6 November, 1999 and which was defeated on the UNfortunate ratio: 45%: 55%.
*Peter Consandine re-joined the ARM in November, 2015 and allowed his second-time around Membership to lapse in November, 2018.